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Difficult; nice; critical; as, a ticklish business. Surely princes had need, in tender matters and ticklish times, to beware what they say. Bacon. -- Tic"klish*ly, adv. -- Tic"klish*ness, n.

e title to an office or dignity without discharging its appropriate duties; as, a titular prince. If these magnificent titles yet remain Not merely titular. Milton. Titular bishop. See under Bishop.

Effect; end; consequence; as, the prince was flattered to his ruin; he engaged in a war to his cost; violent factions exist to the prejudice of the state.

The ruler or principal man in a place or country; the governor of a toparchy. The prince and toparch of that country. Fuller.

Ready to act; forward; bold; valiant. Why, that is spoken like a toward prince. Shak.

Hence, to follow the trace or track of. How all the way the prince on footpace traced. Spenser.

igh degree Into misery and endeth wretchedly. Chaucer. All our tragedies are of kings and princes. Jer. Taylor. tragedy is poetry in its deepest earnest; comedy is poetry in unlimited jest. Coleridge.

Steady in adhering to friends, to promises, to a prince, or the like; unwavering; faithful; loyal; not false, fickle, or perfidious; as, a true friend; a wife true to her husband; an officer true to his charge. Thy so true, So faithful, love unequaled. Milton. Dare to be true: nothing can need a lie. Herbert.…

y; faithfully; as, to be truly attached to a lover; the citizens are truly loyal to their prince or their country. Burke.

y severe in government; absolute; imperious; despotic; cruel; arbitrary; as, a tyrannical prince; a tyrannical master; tyrannical government. "A power tyrannical." Shak. Our sects a more tyrannic power assume. Roscommon. The oppressor ruled tyrannic where he durst. Pope. -- Ty*ran"nic*al*ly, adv. -- Ty*ran"nic*al*ness…

by justice, or with a severity not necessary to the ends of justice and government; as, a prince will often tyrannize over his subjects; masters sometimes tyrannize over their servants or apprentices.

. Under this head may come in the several contests and wars betwixt popes and the secular princes. C. Leslie.

Not begotten. [Obs. or Poetic] "His loins yet full of ungot princes." Waller.

One of the orders of the celestial hierarchy. Thrones, dominations, princedoms, virtues, powers. Milton. Cardinal virtues. See under Cardinal, a. -- In, or By, virtue of, through the force of; by authority of. "He used to travel through Greece by virtue of this fable, which procured him reception in all the towns." Ad…

is service greatly rewarded, if he might obtain by that means to live in the sight of his prince, and yet practice his own chosen vocation. Sir. P. Sidney.

ribes do please And wind all other witnesses. Herrick. Were our legislature vested in the prince, he might wind and turn our constitution at his pleasure. Addison.

ing; sense. Who knew the wit of the Lord or who was his counselor Wyclif (Rom. xi. 34). A prince most prudent, of an excellent And unmatched wit and judgment. Shak. Will puts in practice what wit deviseth. Sir J. Davies. He wants not wit the dander to decline. Dryden.

To hold back; to restrain; to keep from action. Withhold, O sovereign prince, your hasty hand From knitting league with him. Spenser.

se. The apology for the king is the same, but worded with greater deference to that great prince. Addison.